Mountain Justice(Warner Bros.) (1937)

Starring Josephine Hutchinson and George Brent; Featuring Guy Kibbee, Mona Barrie and Robert Barrat; Director Michael Curtiz; A First National Production, Coming to the Theatre on _________. Renee j Fictionized by HARRY LEE CHAPTER I SHE HAD FURRIN NOTIONS ‘““What’s old Doe Barnard goin’ into the after-service meetin’ fer, d’ye reckon, Lize? man!’’ He ain’t no echureh-goin’ 3 The mountaineer spat out one quid, and bit off another. “And Ruth Harkins!’’ exclaimed the gaunt woman in her Sunday best, ‘‘What’s she want in a men’s gatherin’? Sakes!’’ She shook her head dismally. ‘‘There’s no holdin’ that girl since she come home from nursin’ school, all filled full o’ furrin notions! “Tf, \l-wasi; Jett Harkins,” drawled the man, his eyes narrowing, “and a darter o’ mine acted that bold—I know what Pd<do!?? “It’?d be comin’ to her!” sighed Lize, righteously, her unseeing gaze fixed on the billowing green reaches of the sunlit mountains. The two were among the gossipers outside the tiny church, which, with the post-office, the blacksmith shop, and a score of frame cabins made up the one straggling street of the village. In the basement of the meeting-room of the church Ruth and Doe sat at a table opposite the minister, the squire, and three others as forbidding. Doc had the floor and was trying to make the best of it, the brogue of Erin thick on the tongue of him. “Sure, and a thousand a year ‘Tain’t decent !’’ would carry it nicely, gintlemen —what wid them that could afford to pay a little! Ruthie here, is a grand nurse, but that ye know! And right here in Green Rock’s the place for it! Fifteen miles saved might mean the difference between life and death to some poor divil—” “This,” droned the Minister, ‘4s hardly the time or the place, Doctor, to be coming with this— this scheme of yours—” “What better place than the House of God when it’s His children we’re thinking of—”’ Ruth eried hotly, her sensitive lips quivering with emotion. “If we’d had a clinic that poor Anderson woman that just died in childbirth might be alive this minute! We’d have healthy children in the mountains, able to do a man’s It Does Happen Here Benighted elders of the church refuse to aid in the establishment of clinics to care for the forgotten women and children of the moun tain districts and drive Josephine Hutchinson and Guy Kibbee from the meeting in “Mountain Justice” the First National melodrama of today’s battle against ignorance and prejudice which opens at PRG 8 6d oe sin 0 REDE: OR “Spange wns work, and pay county taxes when they grow up. Oh, don’t you see! You’ve got to help—” “T think you’d better go home!” suggested the preacher, angrily. Ruth was about to make indig nant reply, but Doce Barnard took her arm gently and led her toward the door. “Now, now, child—” he’ murmured. Before going out he turned pleadingly. “Tis only good she means, gintlemen, indade and it is! She’s been havin’ a difficult time wid me— fightin’ death up there at the Andersons! That’s why she’s like she is—so, don’t be too harsh on her!” The men glared as the two silently left the dim room. “Now, now, child—” It was an expression Ruth had heard him use to many a sick child in the cabins they had so often visited together. Today he was using it to comfort her. “Now, now, go home and rest, child. We’ll talk about the clinic again—so we will!” A wind had come up, and the green boughs were blowing. The birds were singing, too, but all Ruth Harkins could think about for the moment was the opposition to the cause that was all in all to her. “Talk about it!” she said, the light of a new determination in her eyes, “I’m going to do something about it! And some day, Doc, believe me, we’ll have the clinic!” “Sure, and we will, child!” chuckled old Doe, rattling off in his flivver. Ruth took the steep path to the cabin where her mother and little sister were— and her father—Jeff Harkins. Bible on knee—the lash of chastisement within easy reach—he grimly awaited the return of his older daughter. The woman and the child started in terror as they heard Ruth’s step. (To be continued) PICK UP HEADING The Story So Far: Pretty Ruth Harkins, after a course in nursing, returns to her mountain people, burning with ambition to start a clinic. Her only ally is old Doc. Barnard. The two are put out of a meeting of townsmen, and she goes to her home, where her father, Jeff Harkins, waits with bible on knee and lash near at hand, to chastise Ruth for waywardness, while her mother and sister Bethie look on. CHAPTER II PAW LAYS DOWN THE LAW ‘‘T don’t want none of your excuses, maw! Where is Ruth! She wasn’t here for breakfast and she wasn’t to prayer meetin’! Now where is she?’’ Jeff Harkins, the father of the family, a big-framed, burly man of about forty-eight, with fierce, shaggy brows and a bull-dog face, marked his place in the Bible, and confronted his wife Meg, old and worn at forty, but with lingering traces of refinement on her sensitive face—a face curiously like that of Bethie, the fifteen-year-old girl who sat at the old-fashioned organ, ready to play the hymns as paw gave them out. “D’ye hear me?” Jeff thundered. “Where is Ruth?” “Don’t be angry, Pa—she went off with old Doe Barnard and—” “With Doe again, huh? How many times have I told her to stop this silly nursin’ business?” He hushed his tirade as the door opened and Ruth came in. The girl stopped abruptly for a moment, looking from one to the other. “Pa—l’m going to sell my acre that Grandpa Clark left me!” She halted momentarily at her father glared at her under shaggy brows, then continued bravely. “Doe and I—are going to start a clinic—and—I want the money to help get it going. It’s for the mountain kids and their mothers, and—and oh, Pa! It means so much! I’ve been thinking of nothing but—” He snatched her words. “—Of nothing but staying out all night, the Lord knows where! ...— Well, TV’ll tell you, Miss—’ He towered over her menacingly. “Youre finished with all that! Meg!” At sound of her name his wife looked toward him fearfully. “Yes, Pa?” she queried weakly. Choking with fury, he went on. “From now on—yow’re goin’ to see that this here brazen daughter of yourn stays right here in the house! TV’ll learn her some new ideas! Them’s my orders! Mind ’em!”? : : Ss Jeff sank into a chair, legs sprawled, head on chest, and began to mumble in extreme selfpity. “Ain’t I had enough to bear —havin’ to stand trial tomorrow for shootin’ down that young skunk from New York—sneakin’ around here surveyin’ my land— for them Electric folks! He got what* he desarved—” he shottted,: Master of His Home Rule of the lash, with savagery held a virtue, characterizes thousands of homes in forgotten highlands. Such an unhappy home is portrayed by Josephine Hutchinson (left) Elizabeth Risdon, Marcia Mae Jones (right) and Robert Barrat in “Mountain Justice” the First National picture coming to the ...... PREGUEC ON isin «oes “sot what anybody’ll git that back. “Who told you to stop tries to cross Jeff Harkins!” playing?” “Ah, well—’ he sighed re“{T—-I—I thought—I was sleepy, signedly, “The Lord’s will be Pa—I—just—” done!” Silence, and then “Play!” The last word was addressed to Bethie who dutifully responded by providing chords for*a hymn. Ruth read from the Bible the words he ‘sternly assigned her. For a long time he appeared to His open hand struck her cruelly across the face. Before he could repeat the blow Ruth had whirled from her “chair and torn Bethie from his grasp. Putting the child behind her she faced him with blazing eyes. be asleep but when little Bethie “Leave her alone,” she cried. tried to tip-toe past him to bed, “Don’t you dare touch her his big hand shot out, grasped again!” her by the arm and yanked her ’ Stunned by this unexpected af-'* tack, Jeff Harkins sat back in his chair in gasping amazement. Then, in apoplectic rage he stammered, “What’s that—you—defying me?” “Call it whatever you like— yowre not going to strike her again!” Shaken with fury Jeff got to his feet and made for Ruth. Meg thrust herself between. “No, no, Jeff,’ she whimpered, “It’s the Lord’s Day!” “And how do your children keep it holy?—By flying in the face of the Sacred Book that says: ‘Children, obey your parents!’!.!” “That’s not all it says. . .” Ruth’s face was white as death. “Tt says, ‘And ye fathers’ provoke not your children’ to wrath!’ ” Tremblingly defiant she stood before him. (To be continued) REE 10 CHAPTER SERIALIZATION Here’s an unusually well written and thrilling novel many editors will welcome. It comes in mimedgraph form with 10 stills for illustration. We suggest you send for the story and show the complete layout to your editor. Heading mats available—10 of them. Order Mat No. 501B — 50c from CAMPAIGN PLAN EDITOR, 321 West 44th Street, N.: YeOz NOTE — If you think you can get better results by having serials complete in mat form, let the Campaign Plan Editor hear from you. Page Nine